A Basketball and a Quaffle
by Canadino
Summary: Seven years and a lifetime and they still can't figure out which is better - basketball or Quidditch. Hogwarts!AU, various pairings
1. Year 1

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

[=]

Hogwarts was founded between the years of the ninth century and the tenth century by four esteemed figures in the wizarding community: the wizards Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin and witches Helena Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. The four were the namesakes for the four houses that the Hogwarts student population is divided into, according to certain personality traits that each house was founded upon. Each house has its own dormitory and common area accessible only to members of that house. Other notable parts of Hogwarts includes the Great Hall, that has its ceiling enchanted to look like the outside sky.

"Honestly," Aomine grumbled, not so subtly, and shifted the lantern light so that the boy's book was cast back into the darkness around them. "Shut up already."

The reader, a serious-looking boy who had insisted on bringing his books with him instead of keeping them in his trunks like everyone else, cleared his throat irritably and adjusted his glasses. "I thought it would interest you," he sniffed, closing the tome, _Hogwarts: a History_. "Since we are to be sorted once we reach the castle."

"I never thought I'd agree with him," said Kagami, speaking up from next to him, "but seriously, shut up." Aomine glared at him, a look that Kagami returned in kind. He had been hoping to find an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express so he could escape Satsuki's frantic contemplations about finally attending Hogwarts and had stumbled upon Kagami, sitting alone and reading Muggle magazines that didn't move. Excitedly, Kagami had told Aomine, who had been raised in a primarily magical environment, about the fascinating points of the Muggle sport known as 'basketball' and they had gotten into a heated argument for the entire ride about basketball and Quidditch. Muggle-borns were so annoying. He hated the idea of being on the same side as Kagami, but at least they were on agreement about the bookworm sharing the boat with them.

"Muscle heads such as yourselves will probably do well in Hufflepuff then," the bespeckled boy decided, opening his book again and reading in the moonlight. The dismissal and finality of his statement made Aomine stand, shaking the boat slightly.

"Stop!" Momoi shrieked, pulling at his robes. "You'll get in trouble! Sit down, for goodness sakes, you're being such an idiot!" After much persuasion, Aomine finally allowed Momoi to pull him down again, although he kept pulling the lantern light away from the now-frustrated boy.

"How exactly are we sorted?" Kagami asked as they stood in the hallway outside the Great Hall, his voice adding to the nervous chattering of their fellow first years. While he and Aomine were not on particularly good terms, he had stuck with them as he had no one else to talk to. He fiddled with the wand in his pocket. "Should I have started reading some of my books?" There was a snort somewhere to their left and the boy with _Hogwarts, a History_ turned away and adjusted his glasses again.

"It'll be alright," Momoi chirped, before Aomine could make up a story about unleashing dormant magical powers, which would probably scare any Muggle-born. "One of my cousins said they just put the Sorting Hat on you and it picks for you."

"A hat picks your house for you?" Kagami asked, confused. Aomine sighed dramatically as if they were dealing with a mentally incapable child and Kagami scowled at him again. Before Momoi could explain, they were whisked into the Great Hall and led down the center between the four House tables. As the upperclassmen scrambled to get a better look at the fresh blood, a first year from somewhere behind them began shouting excitedly.

"You can see the sky from the ceiling!" he was calling loudly. Being part of the taller members of the first years, Kagami and Aomine turned to see an excitable blonde practically squealing to anyone who would listen. "This is so exciting!"

"Typical Muggle-born," Aomine muttered under his breath. Momoi elbowed him hard in the ribs, but Kagami, though less vocal, was too intrigued by the room to hear. The Sorting Hat was sitting on a stool at the front of the hall, in front of the staff table. The tear along the seam rippled, cleared its throat, and began to sing. Aomine snuck a glance at Kagami, who stared at the hat in appreciative awe, and smiled smugly to himself; the idiot wasn't going to survive if such things like a talking hat were enough to amaze him. The noisy blonde in the back led the first years in applause after the song was done.

Aomine was one of the first ones to be sorted; the hat was placed on his head and the hat laughed before proclaiming _Gryffindor!_ He couldn't imagine what was so hilarious about his head, when the hat had spoken at length quietly to a first year before him, a redhead who landed in Slytherin. It laughed again at Kagami, who took a seat next to him at the house table despite Aomine's intense look of _no, please_. Momoi sobbed audibly when the hat made her a Slytherin. He kicked Kagami hard in the leg when the noisy blonde was sorted into Hufflepuff; Kagami kicked him back in the shin when the boy – Midorima Shintarou - clutching _Hogwarts, a History_ was made a Ravenclaw. Aomine grabbed his knife and jabbed Kagami hard in the back and they had a little scuffle when someone else was led to the Ravenclaw table. An upperclassman moved and sat between them when the tallest member of their year was made a Slytherin.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked.

"You think you're going to end up looking like that broad if you keep eating like that?" Aomine asked loudly before the prefect leading them could give an answer, elbowing Kagami and pointing meanly. The painting slammed shut before Aomine could enter the common room and lectured him soundly before he could finally leave the hallway. Kagami's face had become extremely red from holding in his laughter.

"You're a jerk," Aomine said into the darkness of the Gryffindor first year boys' dormitory. Kagami grunted somewhere to his right.

"We'll never be friends," he added.

"Shut up," someone grumbled sleepily.

[=]

"So you're Muggle-born," Aomine started without preamble to the skittish first year next to him in Charms. "What is 'basketball'?"

"Huh?" The boy, trembling since class started, turned to him in surprise and a stray movement of his wand made the rock that they were supposed to turn soft and pliable shoot across the room and hit Hanamiya in the face. Aomine didn't consider himself friends with Sakurai, but the boy was useful in gathering information since he was so eager to give it up without trouble. "B-basketball?"

"Yeah," Aomine said, flicking his wand. The rock sat steadfast and hard in front of him. "What is it?"

"Why do you want to know?" Sakurai asked, before apologizing.

"I just do." The rock was looking back at him in its stubborn, gray glory and was staying as hard as ever. "I mean, what is it even? How can anyone find it fun?"

There was a snort behind him and Aomine turned. Akashi, the Slytherin that had had a serious discussion with the Sorting Hat, was smiling pityingly at him. The rock in front of him had already been given passing marks by the professor and he was sitting and waiting for the rest of the class to catch up. "You don't know anything about Muggles, do you," he said.

"Why would you care?" Aomine scoffed, pointing his wand threateningly at Akashi. Sparks emitted weakly from the tip and Sakurai apologized despite not participating in the conversation. "Families like yours wouldn't have anything to do with Muggles, right? Look where you're at right now." He gestured rudely at Akashi's green and silver tie.

Akashi laughed condescendingly. "You belong in Gryffindor," he sniffed, crossing his arms. "For your information, only backwards wizards would completely disregard Muggles. While I do not believe that Muggles are as capable in ability as wizards, I do not discriminate because we cohabit the planet with Muggles so there is no need to antagonize them, am I right?" He shook his head. "You are so simple minded, Daiki. You should focus on charming that rock if you want to talk to me."

Aomine turned, gritting his teeth. He'd already lost points for Gryffindor in the morning after another fight with Kagami outside the common room after he'd forgotten his books and Kagami had refused to lend him his. If he fought again in class, the professor would not be as lenient. He grumbled and shouted _Spongify_ at the rock. The rock promptly deflated.

Later, Sakurai ran up to him clutching some magazines and detailed descriptions of the Muggle game 'basketball' and began sputtering out explanations as Aomine paged through them slightly stupefied. He hadn't expected Sakurai to produce any sort of results and said so.

"I'm sorry," Sakurai apologized for nothing at all. It was appropriate he was placed in Hufflepuff. Aomine accepted the basketball material. Sakurai apologized again for unknown reasons.

[=]

Flying was child's play for Aomine; he'd broken into his parents' broom closet at five and by the time they'd figured it out when he was ten, he was already a relatively skilled – self-described – handler of the broom. He thought it was a good idea to try and impress the professor during their first flying lesson as first years, as a good word would go far in the Quidditch team tryouts. First years were rare on teams, but not unheard of since the instances years back, but he was confident in his raw talent and ability.

It troubled him that Kagami could summon his broom just as easily as he could, but he supposed there was no reason to get bent out of shape over beginner's luck.

They were only supposed to hover before landing but Aomine found no problem with hovering a little higher than the others and maybe flying around a bit, but the professor had other ideas and deducted twenty points despite his insistences that he'd flown before, and numerous times at that. He was grounded after that and had to settle for watching sulkily as the rest of the class practiced careful takeoffs and dismounts. Kagami was unsteady at first, but by the end of the lesson, his eyes were glittering.

"Wow, that was cool!" he said as they walked back toward the castle. They weren't _friends_, of course, but Aomine had to go the same way and he was man enough to handle talking to Kagami even for a few minutes. "Flying on a broom was something I'd always thought was part of fantasy but to do it for real…wow!"

"You didn't even get to fly around," Aomine reminded.

Kagami turned to him with even more spark in his eyes. "You have?" he asked excitedly, almost reminding Aomine of the obnoxious boy from the Sorting who couldn't stop squealing about everything. "Wow! Can you teach me? I mean, flying classes are good too, but…you know how to fly already?"

"Been flying since I was five," Aomine bragged, tossing his head. "I guess you have an excuse. But there's nothing like it. When you fly, you've got to play Quidditch. Why else would you learn to fly, right?"

"Wow," Kagami echoed, still impressed. "I read up on Quidditch," he added, reminding Aomine that he himself had browsed Sakurai's 'basketball' magazines earlier. "It looks really neat. I don't know how it levels up with basketball, but I guess you might have had a point."

"Of course," Aomine said, scratching his cheek.

"Can you teach me?" Kagami asked, grabbing and tugging at Aomine's robes. "I want to learn how to fly really soon so I can try Quidditch too!"

"Okay," Aomine agreed, thinking about how it would be like playing Quidditch with Kagami. The fervor the Muggle-born had about basketball looked like it would transfer easily to Quidditch. Anyway, the other first years in their house looked like wimps when it came to dodging Bludgers and things. "But it doesn't mean we're friends," he reminded as they reached the steps. "I just want to show you how superior Quidditch is to your basketball."

Kagami blinked, confused for a moment. "Oh yeah," he said, nodding. "You probably suck at flying anyway. And Quidditch."

"I'm great!" Aomine yelled. "The only one who can beat me at flying is me!"

[=]

The first Quidditch match of the season was against Gryffindor and Slytherin. Momoi made her way through the throngs of scarlet and gold in her green and silver uniform and was shoved only once. "Hey!" she called, stumbling onto the seat next to Aomine. "Oh!" She grinned and waved at Kagami. "I'm glad to see you two!"

"We're not friends," Aomine insisted.

"He's been teaching me how to fly," Kagami said instead, looking eager about the match. "He said it would be best for me to see how it's really done."

"Aren't first years not allowed to fly without professor supervision?" Momoi asked. She settled in the midst of the Gryffindor side without much trouble.

"Well, yeah," Kagami admitted, slightly sheepish.

"When has that ever stopped me?" Aomine asked loudly.

The match began without further ado. The commentary was fun and lively, but the cheers from both sides were enough to add color to Kagami's cheeks. He cheered indiscriminately even after Aomine reminded him that Slytherin had just scored. "Leave him alone," Momoi chastised as Kagami cheered with the crowd. She was one of the few that were not already on their feet; she had watched the game with a mild smile, interested more in observing Aomine and Kagami. "He's just having fun too."

"There's a right way to have fun," Aomine scoffed. Gryffindor won at the end of the match. Kagami decided as they were heading back to the castle that he would become a chaser for the team for certain. "That's impossible," Aomine declared. "I'm going to be a chaser for Gryffindor."

"There's three chasers," Momoi and Kagami said at the same time. Aomine stormed off and let them laugh at him behind his back. He had better things to do than talk to his annoying childhood friend and Muggle-born classmate (not friend).

[=]

Kagami was good at potions.

"It's like cooking," he said. "You have to be careful not to add too much, or too little, and you've got to do it just a certain way in order not to mess up the dish." He received full marks on all his potions in class, and wasn't doing too shabbily despite his essays being subpar.

"I don't cook," Aomine grumbled, staring on at Kagami's Hair-Raising potion, which had turned the desired slime green color. His was still a dull copper. He gave it a rueful stir and it turned purple.

Surprisingly, Momoi was equally as terrible in potions. "I add things like how it says," she complained, poking at the fire under her cauldron with her wand. "But it just turns out terrible all the time." Her potion was in worse shape than Aomine's, which was still liquid. Momoi's Hair-Raising potion had turned into a solid, messy black blog and was steaming.

"She's also a terrible cook," Aomine muttered when she went to the professor to ask for help. Kagami laughed.

[=]

Aomine did not go back home for Christmas, although Momoi and Kagami did. While he did have other friends – lots too! – he felt a little lonely. Both were the noisiest parts of his life and when he woke up, it was different not to have Momoi nag at him about doing his homework (although she had cried that they were in different houses at first, she was now acting as if nothing had changed) and to have Kagami talk about basketball. Not that they were friends or anything, of course, but pests were pests.

He received a care package of sweets from Momoi, which he knew she ordered with her owl. They were his favorite kinds, from chocolate frogs to sugar quills – he had perfected the art of not crunching them during class. Since he'd practically lived next to her his entire life, he knew about her meager allowance and was touched she spent so much on him.

After exploring his parents' gifts and trinkets from family members, he was surprised to find a badly wrapped gift from Kagami. Inside were, predictably, basketball magazines. They were brand new, since Kagami's own had worn spines and tears on the covers. They were also Muggle magazines, since the players did not run around. He knew Kagami had had trouble using the barn owl he'd brought with him, as he had to have an upperclassman show him how ("Now you'll respect your upperclassmen, right?"), and the magazines couldn't have come from anywhere else. For a split second, Aomine felt bad he did not think of Kagami when he bought his gifts, but they weren't friends anyway.

Aomine was reading the magazines at breakfast at the mostly deserted house table, wondering about different terms he kept coming across, when the bookish Midorima walked past and happened to glance at him. Thankfully he did not have his _Hogwarts, a History_ with him, but he did not need it to sound irritating. "You like basketball?" he asked.

Aomine looked up, crumbs from his toast falling from his mouth. Midorima made a face. He was still wearing his Ravenclaw-colored uniform despite the holiday. "Not really," Aomine shrugged. "Just curious. Why? Do you?"

"I'd rather study," Midorima huffed, and strode off. Aomine stuck his tongue out at his receding back. Afterwards, he dug into his trunk and found the least beaten up Quidditch magazine he owned and borrowed a school owl to mail it.

[=]

Kagami was strangely excited about final exams.

"I didn't do too good in school," he said in the common room. "But Hogwarts is different than school…Muggle school, I mean."

Inaptitude for studying carried over across to the magical world, apparently, because a few hours after this declaration, Kagami was lying facedown at the table, smearing ink all over his face.

"Your idiot face is getting uglier," Aomine said, prodding Kagami with a quill.

"It's just as hard," Kagami muttered into the parchment.

Aomine grimaced. "How about this," he said. "I'm meeting up with Momoi in the library to review for History of Magic and Transfiguration, if you'd like to tag along. Don't say I never offered."

"Could I?" Kagami yelled, gathering his books and rushing after Aomine with _what is magic_ written backwards across his forehead.

Momoi was not surprised to see Kagami. "Kagami_n_," she greeted with a smile. Aomine wondered if she had expected this, since she had gotten them a small table in the corner of the library. The library was respectably packed with students in little nooks and crannies, with books splayed before them. "You've got ink on your face." She waved it away with a wave of her wand.

"Do we need to know how to do that?" Kagami asked, a little shell-shocked already.

Momoi made a face at him. "It was something we learned at the beginning of the semester, Kagami_n_…"

Momoi's notes were neat and it was clear indication by her good scores on returned tests and papers that she was a good student. Kagami took solace in the fact that Aomine struggled just as much as he did. In the midst of writing out a draft of his Transfiguration paper, he discovered he had somehow misplaced his textbook. He knew he brought it with him since it had been digging into his side on the way to the library. Aomine had forgotten his so he was borrowing Momoi's, and Kagami didn't think it was possible for three heads to use one book.

"I lost my Transfiguration book," he said.

Momoi and Aomine looked up from the passage they were trying to deconstruct together. "Did you have it?"

"I did!" Kagami frowned as he rummaged through the table, invaded by their books and parchment. Momoi began to pick at the mess in front of them too, but to no avail. "Where could it be, I'm on a roll right now…!"

"It was on the floor," a voice said, and Kagami felt and heard a thump somewhere near his elbow. He turned quickly and found his Transfiguration book curiously placed near his arm, but there was no one around. He snuck a peek down a nearby aisle but it was deserted and the closest student was too far to have retrieved his books and none of them looked as if they had left their studying posts. Kagami picked up his book carefully.

"Did you hear that?" he asked.

Aomine and Momoi nodded.

"Is the library haunted?"

At this, Aomine snickered. "Idiot, you've seen the ghosts that wander around the place, and you're still using the Muggle conception of 'hauntings'? You know as well as we do now that ghosts can't touch solid objects." Kagami looked around again. "Just let it go. There was a nice person who helped you out. Weren't you on a roll?"

"Oh yeah," Kagami remembered, cracking open the book and returning to his parchment.

[=]

My pure wonder and luck, both Aomine and Kagami managed to pass their exams and proceeded to the next year. They spent the night before the end of the academic year having another heated debate about Quidditch and basketball. That said, they got nothing packed and were frantically shoving their belongings in their trunks and were the last ones on the platform. "Typical," Momoi said, rolling her eyes and going off to sit with her girl friends as the two resumed their argument in a compartment by themselves.

When Momoi found them again on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, they were still griping at each other. "Basketball is better because there's an emphasis on ball handling! You have to perfect dribbling! What's the point of a sport where you have control of the ball all the time! There's no skill involved!"

"You're wrong," Aomine shouted. "There's flying! You've got to be good at flying!"

Momoi finally separated them once they passed through the barrier. "Come on, Dai-_chan_," she grumbled, pulling at Aomine. "We've got to go. Bicker with Kagami_n_ later."

"I'll send you an owl," Kagami promised heatedly. "With a whole list of reasons why you're wrong!"

"I'll send your stupid owl back with a hex," Aomine vowed.

"Can't you two just admit you're friends yet?"

"_No_!"


	2. Year 2

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

[=]

"Dai-_chan_, this compartment's free!"

"I don't wanna sit with you, Satsuki. Go find your friends."

Momoi made a face. "You don't have to act like that. We spent the entire summer together, gosh."

"That's _why_ I don't want to sit with you."

She stuck out her tongue at him. "Why don't you just say that you want to find Kagami_n_? This is why no girls want to date you!" With a huff, she stormed off in the opposite direction of the train. Aomine scowled and continued passing through the cars, peeking into each compartment. He spotted bookworm Midorima with Akashi and the tallest member of their class and hurried on. Buzzkills like those were too stifling for people like him.

Aomine found Kagami in the second to last car on the Hogwarts Express. He was reading a Quidditch magazine. Aomine considered his conversion technique to be unequivocal. "I'm glad to see you came to your senses," he said with a smirk.

"Aomine!" Kagami brightened as if they were _friends_. "I brought something for you." Rummaging around his pockets, Kagami produced a pack of cards. On further inspection, they looked similar to the trading cards in Chocolate Frog packs, but they were not moving and had pictures of people in basketball uniforms. Aomine was a little disgusted at himself for recognizing basketball uniforms when he saw them. "These are basketball cards!"

"They don't move," Aomine said, picking one up and turning it around. Instead of a little snippet of biography, there were numbers and statistics. "What's so fun about these if they don't show their signature move?"

"I was thinking," Kagami said as if Aomine hadn't said anything, "that it would be a cool idea if there was a wizarding basketball magazine. That way, the magical world could see how cool it was. Are moving pictures hard to make?"

"That's what Quidditch is for," Aomine insisted. "I have something to show you, actually!" Pocketing the basketball cards to free up his hands, he pulled out a photo and handed it to Kagami. It was a picture of him on his lawn on a broom, whizzing around. "Check it out. My dad lent me his broom for the year and said he'd give it to me if I made the team."

"Wow!" Kagami stared at the photo.

"Aren't you going to ask me what model it is?"

Kagami looked at him blankly. "Even if I did, I wouldn't be impressed." Such ignorance was rewarded by Aomine giving him a long lecture about the types of brooms on the market and the best ones. Sufficient to say, by the time the Hogwarts Express reached Hogwarts, Kagami was well versed in broom models and was duly envious of Aomine. "By the way," Kagami said, as they were changing into their robes, "something weird happened to me on the train before you came."

"Hmm?"

"I found this empty compartment and I was starting to put my stuff down when this voice came out of nowhere and said someone was in there!" Kagami pulled a terrified face. "I could have sworn there was no one in there before so I grabbed my stuff and left. Do you think there's a ghost on the train?"

"We can see ghosts," Aomine reminded him.

"Yeah…I know…but…" Kagami shivered. "Do you think I'm a magnet for the supernatural?"

"What's a magnet?"

[=]

"So these baby Mandrakes' screams can knock someone out."

"That's what the professor said." Kagami began reaching for the earmuffs when Aomine grabbed his hand.

"Yeah, right. That's ridiculous." In the middle of the greenhouse, where there were moving plants and dragon dung fertilizer everywhere, the professor was busy ensuring everyone had a pot and earmuffs to replant their Mandrakes that she did not notice Aomine and Kagami. Aomine considered Herbiology to be a dull piece of work, though Kagami seemed to think otherwise. In fact, Aomine thought, Kagami worked pretty hard in all his classes despite doing average in most of his subjects. That was Muggle-born determination for you. "Let's have a contest," Aomine declared. "Leave one of your earmuffs slightly off your ear. Whoever can last the longest without fainting wins."

"That's stupid," Kagami said, reaching for the earmuffs again, but Aomine grabbed his wrist.

"Are you a wimp?"

"No, but we're supposed to put on the earmuffs. They wouldn't give it to us if there wasn't good reason."

Aomine raised an eyebrow. "Honestly?" he said. "I guess that's what I should have expected from a basketball fanatic."

So the two of them left on ear off-kilter and gave each other a nod before pulling up their Mandrakes. Of course, they did not consider that half the class did the same, and half a dozen Mandrake shrieks were enough to knock them out for a good half day. When they came to, both were lying comatose in the Hospital Ward, with Momoi lamenting loudly at them for their foolishness and not offering help to clean the soot and leaves off their robes.

[=]

"Tatsuya?"

The Hufflepuff upperclassman turned. Kagami blinked and walked toward him. "It's you! Tatsuya! You're a wizard?"

"Taiga?" The fourth year brushed the bangs out from over his eyes. "You're at Hogwarts too? I never thought I'd see you here!"

"Why didn't you tell me you were a wizard?" Kagami asked, his voice carrying and making other students in the hall turn to look at them. "All this time I was told you went to his big-shot boarding school and that's why you weren't around anymore!"

"I mean, I _am_ at a boarding school…"

Kagami studied him for a moment. "I guess it makes sense," he said after a moment. "You having magic would explain some of your basketball moves. Why didn't you tell me though? We could have played basketball together this summer!"

Himuro smiled wanly, as he was partial to doing. His tendency to appear fleeting and distant pegged him as a brooding sort to those who met him first, but Kagami had enough memories of him chatting up the older boys on the basketball court while he stood and watched nervously. "Are you sure, though? Weren't you the one who told me a couple summers back that I was too old to be playing with you?" At Kagami's pout, he laughed. "What are you, a second year by now?"

"Yeah!"

"Are you planning on trying out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team?" Kagami noticed the silver ring around his neck, the symbol of their brotherhood they'd vowed by years back. He quickly reached into his shirt and pulled out his ring from its chain. Himuro's eyes widened.

"I am!" Kagami announced. "And even if it's not basketball, I'm gonna beat you!"

Himuro chuckled. "I didn't even say I was on my team. But I'm looking forward to it. By the way," he added, as Kagami nodded enthusiastically, "I'm currently tutoring someone in your year. Do you know him? His name is Murasakibara."

Kagami shook his head. "What House is he?"

"Slytherin." Himuro looked at him. "I suppose you wouldn't have, though. Yours and their house rivalries are infamous."

"I've got a friend in Slytherin, though!" Kagami piped up. "I could ask her!"

"Her?" Himuro brought a hand to his mouth to hide his grin. "You didn't strike me to be one with a girlfriend, Taiga…"

"Momoi is only a friend!" Kagami shouted, flushing red. "We wouldn't…we would never…!"

"It's okay, Taiga…"

[=]

At first, Aomine rolled his eyes and dismissed him whenever he spoke of the library spirit. In the rare occasions Kagami visited the library – which would be when Momoi was busy and he desperately needed to finish his homework – there was always something or someone who helped him fetch a necessary book or retrieve a fallen item. He became fully convinced he was watched by something supernatural in the library, even after learning about the truth about werewolves in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Aomine scoffed at him and told him he was stupid. So when he began to laugh instead when Kagami brought up the library ghost, he was suspicious.

"You really think it's a ghost," Aomine chuckled, his face contorted in glee.

"You know something, don't you?" Kagami asked, whipping out his wand in the common room. What he could possibly do was beyond him; he could now correctly perform the color change charm, and Aomine was wearing his favorite Quidditch team sweater. "What is it?"

"You see," Aomine said, trying to be serious but failing as a snort came from his mouth, "there was this one student a few years back…he was studying and had been kicked out of the library since it was afterhours but he had an exam the next day so he snuck back into the library and the library knew it had an intruder so it dropped a stack of books on him and killed him and he haunts the library and when he sees a careless student he helps him so no one else suffers the same fate!" He let out a bark of laughter and dodged the spell Kagami shot at him. "I'm serious, though," he said, wiping a tear from his eye. "There's nothing bad in the library."

Kagami narrowed his eyes at him.

On Aomine's insistence, he visited the library again to finish his Charms paper. The library was a quiet and relatively empty place during regular school weeks, as it was expansive so the stray student could settle and study without seeing another for hours at a time. Kagami put on his best game face and made a beeline for a table. He could not sense any ghostly spirit and took a deep breath and put his things at the empty space at the table. There were books and parchment at the spot next to him, but it appeared the occupant had stepped away for a moment.

"Uses for the _Incendio_ charm," he muttered, scribbling the blotting the ink on the parchment. He had forgotten all about the library ghost. While he had been wary, once he had started on his paper again, he'd torn open all his Charms textbooks and was writing everything he could find. "Besides light, it can be used to produce flames…for potions and…"

"Control Devil's Snare," said a voice next to him.

Kagami let out a yell, causing the shelves around him to whisper _shh_. There was now someone sitting next to him, surrounded by the books and parchment that he'd thought someone had left. The boy stared up at him with clear blue eyes and frowned slightly. "Please don't yell," he said.

"Don't do that," Kagami hissed, putting a hand over his heart to make sure he hadn't lost it. "Why are you sneaking up on people in the library anyway?"

"I was here the whole time," the boy protested. Kagami glared at him and studied him further; the boy was a Ravenclaw, by the looks of the house crest on his robes and the blue and bronze tie around his neck. "You were the one who sat down and started talking to yourself."

Kagami glowered at him before the connection sparked in his mind. "You're the library ghost!" he shouted. The shelves shushed him again.

"The library ghost?" the boy asked.

"Last year I lost my Transfiguration book and someone found it for me! And you're the one who's been putting my things back on the table when I lose them, right?" Kagami grinned triumphantly. "It's been you, hasn't it? Helping me out in the library?"

The boy stared at him for a moment and for a split second, Kagami knew he'd gotten it wrong and he'd just spouted nonsense at a random stranger, but the boy just sighed. "It's just irritating to watch someone fumble so much in the library. It's distracting, you know."

"Why are you stalking me in the library?"

"I'm not stalking. But you come in with your big mouth and noisy friends, so it's impossible to not notice you." The way he said it indicated he was a frequent visitor of the library.

"You've met Aomine," Kagami said.

"I have," the boy confirmed, turning back and writing silently on his parchment. "He came around asking about a library ghost and he was making a big fuss so I told him to be quiet or he should leave if he wasn't doing work."

"He asked about a library ghost?"

"He said he knew someone who was convinced there was a poltergeist in the library." The boy stopped writing and turned to look at Kagami. "It was you, wasn't it. Please don't spread unnecessary rumors around, please. Some people use the library for their studies."

"I'm sorry," Kagami apologized, feeling the need to with the boy's passion on the subject. "I'm Kagami Taiga, by the way. Sorry I called you a library ghost."

"I am Kuroko," the boy said, extending a small hand. "Kuroko Tetsuya. Apology reluctantly accepted."

[=]

Kuroko became a mutual friend of Aomine and Kagami's, though for completely different reasons. Aomine liked him because he had gotten Kagami all bent out of shape and he always laughed the loudest whenever Kuroko surprised Kagami with his uncanny ability to appear unnoticed. Kagami liked him because seeking Kuroko for help with his studies was better than seeking Momoi and risking the chance of having Aomine sneer at him while also seeking help. Kuroko did not seem to care either way.

Kuroko was invited to watch the Quidditch team tryouts by them both and came, bundled up in a scarf and coat and sat in the stands with Momoi, who made fast friends with him as well. He brought a book with him and started reading almost immediately, pausing to answer Momoi, insisting, "Quidditch doesn't interest me much." That was a point Momoi enjoyed about him.

"No hard feelings if you don't make the team," Aomine said, securing his helmet as Kagami slipped on his gloves. "Only the best make the House team. I'll make sure to play with you outside of practice."

"Are you sure you should be talking?" Kagami grinned. "Don't cry to me if you don't get picked."

The previous year's Quidditch chasers had all been seventh years, so there was a huge necessity to find several chasers, both starters and reserves. The captain and one of the two beaters was a scowling upperclassmen with glasses. "The team doesn't accept wimps," he announced. "If you can't keep up, you'd better quit right now and run back to your mothers."

"It's not clutch time, Hyuuga," the keeper, a carefree sixth year, reminded him. "Don't mind him," he added, addressing the small group that had gathered for the tryouts. "Hyuuga gets really intense about Quidditch. We won the Quidditch cup last year for the first time in several years so we're trying to keep Gryffindor's hands on it."

The tryouts began first with flying exercises, which quickly eliminated those who weren't fast and quick enough in the air. A reserve keeper was chosen, one with equally broad shoulders and build as Kiyoshi Teppei, who flew around introducing himself as the tryouts commenced. He'd popped up behind Kagami to say, "Hello, I'm Kiyoshi, what's your name?" and almost knocked Kagami off his broom. Hyuuga exiled Kiyoshi to the opposite end of the field to train the reserve keeper, a silent fourth year named Mitobe.

After Hyuuga's effective culling, the tryouts quickly progressed to deciding who was starting and who was on reserve. The six potential chasers were split, with Kagami and Aomine on the same team. Aomine could hear Momoi cheering for them from the stands and looked up to see that Kuroko had finally put his book down. "Don't drag me down," he drawled, smacking Kagami on the shoulder.

"I should be saying that!" the second year shot back.

Hyuuga was especially brutal with his bludger beating skills, aiming to maim, if not kill despite it being a practice trial. The third year who had been placed on their team had been knocked out early on in the game and swiftly placed on reserve. "I can play on my own," Aomine bragged, so they had not stopped the game. Kagami was keeping up rather well, and had intercepted a couple passes that Aomine couldn't help but respect. Kiyoshi was not the starting keeper for nothing, but they'd managed to score a handful of goals apiece.

"It's like basketball," Kagami said. "But in the air. And with two more hoops."

"Basketball is lame compared to this," Aomine cackled, snatching the Quaffle from him and scoring.

"Last play!" Hyuuga called out, and Kagami dived between another pass and sped toward the goal posts behind Kiyoshi. The other chasers followed immediately, setting up a weaving chase in the air as Aomine hovered below, waiting for a chance to swoop in if things turned bad. Kagami managed to avoid a bludger to the head, but the arc of the rogue ball skimmed the end of his broom. While before his aim to the posts would have been clear, his brief stumble allowed the chasers to catch up. Aomine surveyed the situation from below; it was certainly possible for Kagami to score at this point. The other chasers left gaps in their defense quite frequently and Kagami had decent aim throughout the entire tryout process. _Good for him_, Aomine thought contritely. Kagami had the perfect set-up to appear quite the Quidditch hero.

He almost missed the way Kagami glanced down at him and only managed to get his fingers around the Quaffle Kagami dropped to him. He'd reflexively scored before the other chasers could drop down to him. Hyuuga ordered them to fly around a bit while he discussed things with Kiyoshi and Aomine caught up with Kagami in midair.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked. "You could have scored yourself."

"It was a safer bet to let you score," Kagami shrugged, looking ahead. "You can't be a ball hog." He shot him a sly look. "Or are you saying I shouldn't have trusted you?"

Aomine stared at him, before clapping him on the back. "You're not too bad, Kagami."

Momoi dragged Kuroko to sit with them at the Gryffindor house table at dinner. "I can't believe you two," she gushed, waving her fork around. "Starting chasers right in your second year! Unbelievable. You're useful for something, Dai-_chan_."

"It's only natural to acknowledge talent," Aomine boasted, throwing an arm around Kagami's shoulders. "Gryffindor should be on their knees to have such players like us."

"I thought you two weren't friends," Kuroko said, a slight smile on his face.

Aomine exchanged a look with Kagami. "We're not friends," he repeated. "We're just teammates who get along, that's all." He laughed when Kagami punched him in the gut and stole his chicken.

[=]

"Who's that, captain?" Kagami asked, pointing to a girl sitting in the stands, a distance away from Momoi and Kuroko. The girl was an upperclassman and wore Slytherin colors and was watching the Gryffindor Quidditch team praactice. Aomine had spotted Momoi making brief conversation with her as he was flying around.

"That's our coach, Riko," Kiyoshi supplied as Hyuuga wiped his brow with the back of his hand. "She's a fifth year like Hyuuga."

"But she's a Slytherin," Aomine protested. "Isn't that bad?"

"She helps us out whenever she isn't playing against us," Hyuuga explained. "She's the Slytherin seeker. She's got an eye for training since her father used to coach the Toyohashi Tengu before he met her Muggle mother." He shrugged. "She used to get bothered about it, but it's not like she gives us an edge since she's willing to offer her training services to the other teams. I think only our team and the Slytherin team listens to her since her conditioning techniques are so harsh."

"Harsh?" Aomine asked, but he was interrupted by Riko's voice, magically amplified so it echoed through the field.

"_Stop your chitchat_!" she shouted. "_I'll increase the weights!"_

"Increase the weights?" Kagami mused, before suddenly feeling two heavy forces around his feet. Struggling to stay on his broom, he noticed Aomine was also teetering. "What's happening?"

"She added weight to your ankles so you would learn how to fly faster and more balanced," Kiyoshi explained amusedly, though Hyuuga frowned and flew over to her. They bickered, she standing in the stands and he on his broom, as Kuroko and Momoi watched fascinated a distance away. "They're close as always," Kiyoshi declared.

"Close?" Kagami yelped, gripping onto his broom as invisible weights threatened to pull him off.

"Are they shagging or something?" Aomine yelled, his broom bucking at him as he struggled to maintain balance.

"Who knows?" Kiyoshi said, unhelpfully sitting on his broom and smiling at them unhelpfully before finally waving his wand to dispel the charm when Kagami slipped off and was hanging in midair, clutching at his broom.

[=]

"You don't look so good," Aomine said, noting Kagami's pasty face as he gripped at his broom, which Hyuuga had sent home for ("School-issued brooms aren't up to par if you're going to be playing on the team! You can pay me back by winning for us!"). Kagami looked almost faint, and his knuckles were as white as his face as he gripped his broom.

"Yeah, well," Kagami said, speaking as if his tongue had become tangled in his mouth. "It's my first Quidditch game, you know, you don't look too good yourself."

"What are you talking about?" Aomine scoffed. A moment later, Kiyoshi slapped him across the head and cheerfully told him his hands were shaking.

Slytherin defeated them soundly 200 – 60.

"Don't take it to heart," Kiyoshi said afterwards, still grinning widely. Hyuuga, though scowling darkly, did not say a word of condemnation to the second years and focused instead on changing out of his Quidditch robes. "We win some, we lose some."

Aomine grumbled. "Sorry," Kagami mumbled, looking truly ashamed. "You should have had the reserves…" The reserves were upperclassmen that had played at least once or twice before. "For the first game…"

"It's _because_ it's the first game, stupid!" Hyuuga shouted, hitting them both with his beater's club. "We've got to beat these first-game jitters out of you before it counts! Don't be thinking that you would have been better if you had more practice; you'd have to go out there sooner or later! Just think about what you did wrong and fix it, okay!" With a huff, he stormed out of the Gryffindor changing room. Kiyoshi offered more words of comfort before leaving Aomine to glower darkly next to Kagami, who was sitting shock shelled.

Barely a moment had passed when Momoi rushed in. "You guys were great!" she exclaimed, as Kuroko came in hesitantly behind her. "That was a good first game!"

"We lost," Aomine snarled.

"That doesn't mean you guys didn't do a good job!" Momoi retorted, crossing her arms in front of him. Kuroko carefully stepped around them and sat next to Kagami. "You and Kagami_n_ were great! You guys were playing for the first time, so it was just nerves!" When Aomine didn't answer, she turned to Kagami. "You did fine," she assured him, grabbing his hands. "It's not the last game of the season, so…"

"Why don't you leave?" Aomine yelled. "Slytherin won, didn't they, so it doesn't really matter what you say, Satsuki!"

Momoi whizzed around and her hand slapped smartly against his cheek before he could step aside. With an enraged shriek, she rushed out of the changing room.

"It's not her fault," Kagami mumbled.

"You should apologize," Kuroko added.

"We lost 'cause we weren't good enough!" Aomine shouted. "Don't you think I don't know that?" He made a fist, but relaxed it with a smirk. "But we're not done yet, right, Kagami? We're going to win the next one, and then the on after that!" He rushed and grabbed Kagami by the shoulders. "We're going to be the best, right?"

Kagami gave him a blank look for a moment, but it cracked into a wiry grin. "Yeah."

[=]

Note: The first few chapters are really heavy on Aomine and Kagami as characters, but later chapters will have more….variety…and actual ships…let me have my fun…this is also not a crossover so there will be no canon HP interaction, I'm just stealing the universe just get over yourselves ok.


	3. Year 3

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

[=]

Momoi did not act any different and arrived at King's Cross with him as chatty and excited as usual, but the moment she spotted Kagami and Kuroko waiting for them, she gave a girly shriek and hopped over and _took Kagami's hand_.

"Excuse me," Aomine said, staring at the spot where Momoi and Kagami's hands were connected. "Care to explain this?"

"Oh," Momoi giggled, rubbing her nose with a carefully manicured finger. "Well, Kagami_n_ and I have been exchanging owls all summer…so…" She looked at him with a beautiful smile; Aomine looked on in horror as one of his best friends' face practically _melted_ with affection. "He said he liked me and I think Kagami_n_ is really nice and sweet and cute so I said we could date." She turned back to Aomine with contempt. "He's a real man, unlike _you_."

"What?" Aomine pointed at them. "Tetsu! Did you know about this?"

"No," Kuroko said, looking just as surprised, gripping the trolley his trunks were on.

"Wow, Satsuki, can I tell you that your taste of men is terrible?" Aomine continued, glaring accusingly; the two ignored him. "If we're talking about Quidditch players, I'm clearly better than him. He's got half his mind on basketball. And look at me, look at my charming good looks. You go and pick Kagami? I'm so disappointed."

"This is why I didn't tell you," Momoi hummed, squeezing Kagami's hand. Aomine found the image to be so ridiculous. Kuroko was looking at them in the same disbelieving way.

"I can help you with your trunks," Kagami offered. Aomine sputtered.

"That would be wonderful, Kagami_n_," Momoi enunciated, giving Aomine a pointed look. "I'm so glad to know that there are guys like you at Hogwarts too." Clutching his arm, she pulled her trolley along with him as they entered through the barrier, leaving Aomine and Kuroko gaping at them.

"Honestly," Aomine grumbled, grabbing his trunks irritably. Kuroko was still staring at the place Momoi and Kagami had been. "You okay, Tetsu?"

"Yes, of course," Kuroko said, carefully avoiding his eyes. "Why wouldn't I be?" Without another word, the boy pushed his trolley through the barrier.

[=]

Kuroko was friends with the bookworm Midorima Shintarou.

"You don't need to do this, Kuroko," Midorima said, looking down at them with cold green eyes in the Ravenclaw common room. Aomine had sought Kuroko out for solace and his Potions homework since the Gryffindor common room currently held Momoi and Kagami flirting and he hated going to the library by himself. He was going through his third piece of parchment after Kuroko's lengthy corrections when Midorima came through the common room and gave him a condescending look.

"It's okay," Kuroko said easily, smiling at Midorima over his book. "I don't mind."

"You may be a Ravenclaw, but it won't do to do a Gryffindor's homework for him."

"I'm only helping, and in the end, Aomine's going to be doing his tests by himself," Kuroko answered, unconcerned. "So if he doesn't learn it on his own, it doesn't matter if I help him or not."

"Whose side are you on, Tetsu?" Aomine grumbled, stabbing his quill into the inkwell and envisioning it was Midorima's face.

"I'm on my own side," Kuroko laughed, and his book turned the page for him. "Where are you going, Midorima?" His polite ticked Aomine off; Midorima was not the type to be nice to. He glanced up and almost snorted; Midorima was dressed in flying gear and gripping a school broom.

"I'm going to practice flying," Midorima said, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "I had a talk with the Head of House and she said while my marks were among the top of the class, I ought to engage in extracurricular activities. So I'm going to try out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team."

"Wouldn't you rather study?" Aomine cackled. Envisioning tight-string Midorima on the Quidditch pitch was hilarious. Even Kuroko had a hard time hiding a smile.

"I would," Midorima said stiffly, recognizing Aomine's mocking tone. "Now if you'll excuse me." He returned a few hours later, his robes dirty and torn and his glasses hanging broken off his nose, muttering to himself as Aomine was practicing his animation charms, his Potions homework lying completed in front of Kuroko. Kuroko was in the middle of his third book.

"What happened, Midorima?" he asked, not even looking up from his text.

"I may have miscalculated," Midorima grumbled.

"Hey!" Aomine called, waving his wand. "I can fix your glasses for you!" Midorima had seemingly forgotten about Aomine's charm skills, for he handed over his glasses as he began to tend to the tears on his robes. "_Oculus Reparo_!" Aomine cried. The lens shattered.

[=]

Third years were given a handful of electives to choose from to add to their course load, and Kagami had written to Aomine during the summer frantically trying to decide what to put after being mailed the list. They found themselves standing outside on the lawn clutching the same Care of Magical Creatures textbook. "I thought it would be the coolest," Kagami said, excitedly. "This and Divination. It's the kind of stuff Muggles always dream and write about!" He grinned. "Why did you choose it?"

Aomine shrugged. "I didn't find the other electives interesting."

The professor brought them to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "In this forest," he spoke clearly, his voice carrying over the small group, "there are a multitude of magical creatures you can read about in your textbook, along with many that haven't been documented. It has been in the past headmasters' interests not to limit or choose the species that inhabit these forests around the castle, and it is for that reason that this class has such a healthy list of options to over. Please be warned that while I will be supervising and ensuring that no harm comes over you, if you choose not to follow my directions and act out of turn, the consequences of handling these creatures is your fault alone. We will not only be dealing with Flobberworms."

"Flobberworms?" Kagami whispered to Aomine.

"They have several rows of teeth," Aomine lied.

The first class covered domestic animals that were common pets to wizards and witches. While Kagami did well in front of Kneazles, he stood paralyzed behind Aomine when faced with the Crups.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" Aomine asked, frowning as he rubbed the head of the excited Crup in front of him. The rest of the class had gathered around and were playing with the Kneazles and Crups but Kagami maintained a large distance from the group.

"I don't like dogs," he muttered.

"This is a _Crup_," Aomine distinguished.

"The principle is the same."

In the end, Kagami had to handle the Crups or risk suffering a failing grade for the class. Squinting his eyes and protecting part of his face with one hand, he took a trembling hand to a Crup's head. It barked happily and Kagami yelped and fell over.

"That isn't manly at all," Aomine snickered.

[=]

"This isn't at all what I thought it would be," Kagami said.

The Divination tower, though it appeared just as he had anticipated, was hot, stuffy, and smelled of old incense. Kagami had prepared for a challenge, as he was Muggle born, but the class itself was – a little over his head. Lessons were filled with drinking tea and staring at objects. His dreams did not give insight to the next day at all. He was starting to think that his initial belief that fortunetellers in the Muggle world were frauds was also true in the magical world.

"What did you think it would be like?" Midorima asked. Kagami resisted sighing exasperatedly. He always had the worst luck to be sitting at the same table as Midorima during each class, during which he watched as the fellow third year read all the signs perfectly.

"Well, for starters," Kagami said, knowing he was walking right into Midorima's trap as he brandished his tea cup, "instead of showing an inconsistent blob of used tea leaves, it could tell me exactly what I should look forward to."

"Divination is about interpretation," Midorima said severely, turning his teacup expertly with taped fingers. He claimed doing so would improve his Quaffle handling skills. From Kuroko's accounts, he was doing well in Quidditch and had unexpectedly made the team even as a novice. "You can't expect your Inner Eye to see everything clearly. The future is just as mysterious as this subtle art."

"You're crazy," Kagami scoffed.

"Give that here," Midorima said, grabbing his teacup and inspecting it. "Accidents," he concluded, handing it back. "Be careful of falling objects. And don't try and tell me I'm wrong; I'm always right when it comes to luck and predictions."

Kagami had dismissed this, but when he was in the library with Kuroko, he'd only walked past a shelf when a heavy tome fell from above and crashed painfully against the top of his head. Kuroko had managed to drag him to the Hospital Wing and sat with him until he awoke. Momoi sobbed over him unnecessarily. When he passed Midorima in the hall, he gave him an acknowledging nod, but when the boy merely stuck his nose in the air, Kagami figured it would be useless to try and befriend Midorima.

[=]

"You have class?" Kagami gaped. "I thought you were only taking Care of Magical Creatures as your only elective."

"Shows how much you know," Aomine sniffed, grabbing his bag and rushing out of the common room before Kagami could ask any more questions. Along the way, he reached into his bag and pulled out the textbook because, naturally, he hadn't done the reading. According to his bookmark in his Muggle Studies book, though, they still had a ways to go before they reached the chapter about Muggle sports, and by extension, basketball.

[=]

Ravenclaws really were in a class of their own. Aomine tried to read Kuroko's Ancient Runes textbook while the boy was completing his Arithmancy homework, but couldn't get past the first few pages. "How do you do this?" he complained. Kuroko glanced at him over his quill, still scratching away. "How is this interesting to you?"

"I'm not _that_ good at it," Kuroko said, "but it's interesting in its own right. I guess you just need to have the mind to appreciate it." Aomine wondered if that was a jab at his intellect. "I'm not that impressive," Kuroko continued, careful to wipe up any blot marks with his wand. "Midorima's taking four of the offered electives to third years; he's not taking Muggle Studies since he's Muggle born."

"Midorima is Muggle born?" Aomine burst. "With his attitude and his stick up his ass, I'd thought he'd was at least a Half-Blood!"

"No," Kuroko smiled, referencing his Arithmancy textbook without interruption. "But even more amazing that Midorima is Akashi. You know of Akashi, right? From Slytherin."

"Sure I do," Aomine said, thinking about the boy who usually received elaborate care packages and walked around like he owned the castle. Rumor had it he was not too shabby in his studies at all. "What about him?"

"He's taking all the possible classes. He was granted a Time Turner to reach all his courses."

"A Time Turner, huh," Aomine mused. "That would be great to have…"

"Yes, I suppose you would find it worth while." Sometimes Aomine couldn't tell if Kuroko was being mean. "I heard he's going to drop Care of Magical Creatures though; he says he doesn't need to learn their behaviors since he can tell much about them by just looking."

Aomine huffed. Care of Magical Creatures was currently his best and favorite subject. "I hope he gets eaten by a dragon."

"I think Akashi could eat the dragon before the dragon ate him."

[=]

"I'm so glad we can go to Hogsmeade this year!" Momoi gushed, bundled up in her best coat and scarf, hanging off Kagami's arm as they trudged up through the snow to the village. "It totally beats catalogue shopping for Christmas!"

"Are you going to spend Christmas in our common room?" Aomine asked, his breath coming out dense clouds. "Please don't." Momoi had announced earlier in the week that she was staying behind in the castle for Christmas holiday, as Kagami had decided to stay as well.

"That's mine and Kagami_n_'s decision," Momoi protested.

They lingered outside Spintwitches for a while, staring at the latest models of brooms until Kuroko voiced the concern of freezing the tips of his fingers off. Together they entered Three Broomsticks; in the corner, near the large Christmas tree set up, the excitable Hufflepuff in their year was seated in a booth surrounded by a gaggle of giggling girls. They were the source of most of the noise in the shop. "Hi, Kuroko_cchi_!" he called, waving as they entered. Kuroko waved back politely.

"You know that chatterbox?" Aomine demanded as they slid into a table of their own.

"Kise is a nice guy," Momoi defended. "He's very good at Transfiguration."

"I helped him out once when he got lost in the library," Kuroko explained. They ordered Butterbeers ("Beer, though?" Kagami asked skeptically until Momoi took his hand on the table and there was no more talk of that. Kuroko fidgeted uncomfortably.). Murasakibara was sitting with Akashi at a window table and eating everything in front of him.

"We should hit Honeydukes and Zonko's next," Aomine decided after drinking half his Butterbeer in a gulp. Kuroko was still sipping gingerly – never much of an eater – and Momoi and Kagami were sharing theirs in sickeningly cute straws.

"You only think with your stomach," Momoi whined, before happening to glance up and gasping. "Oh, look, Kagami_n_! Mistletoe!" Above their seats was a spring of mistletoe. "Isn't that cute!" Aomine stared at them but they continued sipping at their Butterbeer.

"Well?" he demanded. "That's it? You made a fuss about it but you're not going to kiss?"

Both Momoi and Kagami flushed bright red. "You haven't even kissed yet, is that it?" Aomine mocked. "Wow. I'd have thought Kagami would have made a move already."

"That's indecent!" Kagami sputtered. He was about to put forth further protests but Momoi tugged at his sleeve shyly.

"We could, you know," she mumbled, looking hesitant but willing. "Just a quick one…I mean…I've wanted, but…"

"You don't have to," Kuroko said quickly. "It's not quite the time and place…"

"It's okay!" Momoi insisted, puckering up unattractively. Aomine was about to make a comment about how she ought to relax when Kagami gave her a quick, chaste peck and covered his face in embarrassment. Momoi squealed and snuggled up to him, her face pink. "You're so shy, Kagami_n_," she giggled.

"You two disgust me," Aomine groaned.

[=]

The match was going perfectly. It was only natural, of course, since he had his lucky item for the day – a match – in his pocket. His goals were connecting with their targets. Midorima ignored the cheers and encouragements from his teammates. To think this sport used to be _difficult_ for him. If he couldn't even play Quidditch, he shouldn't call himself a Ravenclaw.

The only annoying part of the match was one of Hufflepuff's beater's fascination with him. After he had executed an impressive barrel roll to avoid the path of a Bludger hit toward him by the aforementioned beater, the beater had taken a likeing to flying around him. "Shin-_chan_," the beater sang, clutching his beater's bag and circling him as if he were the Snitch. "Shin-_chan_, that was a great goal!"

"Please stop bothering me," Midorima said. "I have a match to play."

"You don't know who I am, do you?" the beater asked, flying upside down in front of him. "My name's Takao Kazunari! I know who you are, though. To imagine, the best third year student is also amazing on the Quidditch pitch! Don't you think that's amazing?"

"Takao," called one of Takao's teammates, the equally skillful chaser Himuro. "Don't forget what you're supposed to be doing."

"Of course not, Mu-_chan_!" Takao laughed. "I'll talk to you later, Shin-_chan_, okay? Don't miss me too much!" Midorima watched the idiot go and was not sorry. He hoped their Seeker would find the Snitch fast; he had Ancient Runes to review.

[=]

Kise didn't like Quidditch, really. Ever since he'd fallen off the broom during first year flying lessons and scratched up his pretty face, he'd had an aversion to flying and broom-related things in general. "I don't see how it could be interesting at all, Kuroko_cchi_," he whined when Kuroko came to ask him to watch with him. He couldn't see the allure of the sport when he heard his upperclassmen talk about it in the common room. The girls that liked to hover with him didn't like it either. "Isn't Gryffindor playing today anyway? You're not in Gryffindor, though. Don't you have other people to watch it with?"

"You're not doing anything right now, are you?" Kuroko asked, nipping that excuse in the bud.

"Hufflepuff isn't playing," Kise tried.

"I understand," Kuroko said, turning away. "It's okay if you don't want to hang out, Kise. I'll go ask someone else…"

"No!" Kise flung his arms around Kuroko. "That's not true. I want to hang out with you, Kuroko_cchi_! Okay, fine, I'll get my coat…" Ever since Kuroko had appeared, his beacon of light, and rescued him from the scary labyrinth of the library, Kise had developed a fondness of the Ravenclaw; Kuroko was cute and smart and had refreshing wit, even if Kise didn't understand some of the comments sometimes. He jogged over to Kuroko, who was wrapped in a muffler that was too long for him. "I'm not sure how interesting it'll be, but if you're with me, I'll love it for sure!"

"Don't use lines you use with girls on me," Kuroko said.

Kise was fully prepared to sit and observe the fans instead of the match itself, but the roar of the crowd directed his attention to the Quidditch pitch and – one of the Gryffindor chasers caught his eye. The way he weaved in between other players and artfully dodged Bludgers was breathtaking – when the Quaffle left his hands toward the goal posts, Kise felt himself hold his breath. There was something completely wonderful about the way he played, his graceful movements and strategic plays. "Who is that?" Kise breathed.

"Who?" Kuroko asked.

"That one! Number five!"

"Oh." Kuroko seemed disinterested. "That's Aomine."

"Are you friends with him?" Kise's eyes glittered. "You have to introduce me!" As he tugged excitedly at Kuroko's arm, the crowd offered another loud cheer. Gryffindor had scored yet again, though this goal was courtesy of their other third year chaser, number eleven. A group of girls screamed a distance away.

"Your boyfriend is amazing, Satsuki!"

Kise glanced over at the group, which was crowded around a flushed and happy girl. "Isn't she your friend, Kuroko_cchi_?" Kise asked, pointing. He remembered seeing Kuroko with her at Hogsmeade before. Of course, he had been busy himself, so he could have seen differently. "Why didn't you watch the match with her?" Not that he was complaining, of course – meeting such an amazing fellow third year like Aomine was worth getting out of the castle.

"Don't you think I'd stand out with a group of girls like that?" Kuroko asked. Kise wondered why that would have been a problem since Kuroko had such little presence. His eyes were glued to the pitch too. Later, when Gryffindor had won the game against Slytherin, Kuroko took him to see Aomine. The other star chaser Kagami was surrounded by the girls from before, with his girlfriend hugging him tightly. "This is Kise," Kuroko introduced distractedly.

"You were amazing!" Kise gushed, as Aomine looked at him dully. "Your plays were really amazing! It was so cool watching you!"

"Do you play?" Aomine asked.

"No, but…"

Aomine scoffed in his face. "Don't come talking about Quidditch to me if you're going to be a complete amateur about it," he sneered, breaking Kise's initial idolized image of him, before stomping away. Kise stood dazed for a moment before pulling at Kuroko, who was busy watching Kagami give Momoi a shy victory kiss.

"Your friend is so mean! He didn't have to say that!"

"Hmm," Kuroko agreed.

"What a jerk!" Kise shouted. "I'll show him!" If there was anything about the magical world that really pissed him off, it was people from wizarding families who thought Muggle-borns like him were just fluffy-minded simpletons. Quidditch couldn't be that hard, could it? He was going to join the Hufflepuff team and beat Aomine and then they'd see who was the real amateur.

[=]

Kagami sighed. He thought he'd had girls all figured out by the way he'd read Momoi's subtle signs in her letters and gave her little trinkets of affection from time to time, but she still threw him out of the Slytherin common room after he'd made a comment about he'd made plans with Aomine to play Quidditch and couldn't join her to make Valentine's Day cookies – after much warning from Aomine about how dangerous cooking with Momoi could be, much less. Sometimes he wondered if he spent too much time with her, when she started to become distance, but whenever he began spending time with Aomine and Kuroko, she'd come and try and join. Girls were confusing, magical or not.

He plopped down on the main staircase, conflicted about consulting Aomine. Aomine knew Momoi best, at the end of it, but he also gave unnecessary comments and could possibly be highly unhelpful. "Girls are such a piece of work," he grumbled into his hands.

"Had an argument with Momoi?"

Kagami jumped. Kuroko had been sitting on the step above his, a book in his lap. The way the boy had a finger pointed to a section on the page indicated he had stopped reading to talk to him. Kuroko cocked his head to the side. "Am I right?"

"Can you stop doing that!" Kagami yelled, his heart rate still racing. "If you're there…make some indication! Was your father the invisible man or something?"

"You see, Kagami," Kuroko explained in a level voice. "My mother was a witch and once while she was venturing into the Muggle world, she saw my father and fell in love. And in order to pursue him, she turned herself invisible so she could surprise him. The charm backfired and she was invisible for a few weeks. Occasionally she turns invisible too. The doctor said the charm affected the fetus and that's why sometimes I can turn invisible too."

Kagami stared. "Really?"

"No, Kagami. It was a joke."

Kagami blinked. "Oh."

"I'm sorry, I'm really terrible at jokes."

"You really are."

Kuroko smiled. "I'm glad you're feeling a little better. Care to say what got her so upset at you?"

Kagami groaned and buried his face in his hands again. "Why would you think she got mad at me instead of the other way around?"

Kuroko made a disappointed sound. "I am also friends with Momoi too. I know you're so lenient toward her, you'd never be upset at her. What did you say this time?"

"She wants me to bake Valentine's Day cookies with her. I said I'd be playing Quidditch with Aomine and she threw me out of the Slytherin common room."

Kuroko shifted down to Kagami's step, his hand still marking his page. "That's a little insensitive, isn't it, Kagami? Sorry, did I say little? I mean a lot. Do you not want to spend time with her?"

"It's not that…I like her a lot, but sometimes I feel like I'm splitting my time between her and you guys…I know you all are friends, but I feel like it's strange to spend time with all of us since we're dating…it's complicated."

"Wow, Kagami, if you think it's complicated at thirteen, think about it at sixteen."

"Shut up, Kuroko. I would have gone to Aomine if I wanted help like that."

"It's not so difficult," Kuroko insisted. "We understand. I think she does too. Just tell her you'll play Quidditch and then afterwards…" He paused. "…afterwards, you'll spend Valentine's Day with her. It's a compromise. You both get what you want."

Kagami mulled this over. "That's not that bad of an idea," he said slowly. "You always make me feel a lot better, Kuroko." Kuroko gave him a faint smile. "I'd better go apologize to Momoi. Thanks a lot!" Standing, Kagami rushed and made his way toward the dungeons again. Kuroko opened his book again against his knees and rested his face against the pages.

[=]

There were tears shed at the end of the year, for the starting team keeper Kiyoshi was graduating.

"Don't cry, everyone!" he said happily, still grinning widely. He was a little too encompassing, as the only ones with wet eyes were Riko and Kagami. "It was really fun with all of you! I had a lot of fun, at least! I know I'm leaving the team in capable hands, though!" He clapped Mitobe on the back. "I'm not dying, I'm just graduating, aren't you happy?"

"I am," Hyuuga muttered.

"I'm gonna miss you so much!" Riko sobbed, crying as freely as Kagami but wailing much more loudly. Aomine felt a little embarrassed to be standing with the team outside. She tackled Kiyoshi in a bone-breaking hug. "You were my favorite on the Gryffindor team," she confessed. "Now I have less incentive to help these thugs."

"I thought," Aomine began, but Hyuuga silenced him with a deathly glare.

"It's okay!" Kiyoshi laughed, patting Riko on the head. "We won this year too, didn't we? It's good! I wanted to play with you guys a little more, but I'm confident in our talent!" He kept laughing, a booming belly laugh as Riko cried against him. Hyuuga made a face.

"If you're going to cry, then cry," he grumbled. "We're all sad to see you go."

Kiyoshi promptly began yowling with Riko, both of them gripping and dripping all over each other as the rest of the Gryffindor team watched on uncomfortably.


	4. Year 4

**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

[=]

Aomine and Kagami agreed to meet at Diagon Alley before the school year started to buy new robes. Quidditch – and in Kagami's case, basketball – did a number on their heights and their robes now fell an embarrassing distance from the ground. Diagon Alley was overrun with Hogwarts rising first years, running out from Ollivanders and Flourish and Blotts. "We weren't like that when we were first years, were we?" Aomine asked, wrinkling his nose as a couple of children ran out in front of him.

"I was," Kagami admitted freely. "At least, because I'd never been in such a place before." His eyes lingered on a broom in a nearby window. "Hey, Aomine, I was thinking about asking my parents to help me buy a broom. I mean, captain's broom is okay, but I kind of want my own broom…"

"That's a good idea. Do you think they'd agree?"

"I don't know," Kagami said thoughtfully. "I just asked for a new pair of basketball shoes."

Madam Malkins was busy. Aomine and Kagami stood and waited for their robes to be fitted as the witch in charge of the floor for the day bustled around. "This is so annoying," Aomine complained. "Robes should grow with you."

"You think you have it hard," Murasakibara spoke up gloomily from behind him. He was trudging around in robes that were currently pinned past his knees. "Think about what I need to go through. You can't eat in here." He shuffled off deeper into the store, clutching a pack of snacks to his chest. They watched him go and Aomine shook his head. Sometimes Slytherins were incomprehensible, though he shouldn't be surprised if Momoi and Riko were people to go off of (not to mention Akashi!).

Momoi's family had taken her overseas for the summer and Aomine saw her again at her house table. She had developed quite nicely in the chest area, he had noticed. She was also leaning those nice breasts against a boy at her table. He felt angry for Kagami, who was busy stuffing his face. "Look!" Aomine growled, knocking the knife from Kagami's hand. "Look!"

Kagami glanced back at Momoi, who was gently giggling in the boy's ear. "So?"

"So?" In a huff, Aomine stormed over and grabbed her shoulder. "Satsuki, what do you think you're doing?"

"Dai-_chan_? I haven't seen you all summer! How are you! Sorry, I should have said something to you first!" She started standing to give him a hug but he kept her at arm's length. The entire Slytherin table was staring at him. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that you're _flirting_ with someone when your boyfriend is right over there!" Aomine gestured an arm over at Kagami, who had resumed eating.

Momoi made a face. "Kagami_n_ and I broke up before the summer. We're just friends now. We both thought this was the best thing for both of us." Aomine let her go. Now the Hufflepuff table, which was next to the Slytherin table, was staring at him too. Glowering, he made his way back next to Kagami.

"You could have asked first," Kagami said, still munching away as Aomine put his forehead onto the table. "You had the whole summer to ask how Momoi was and I would have told you."

"Why didn't you tell me _first_ before I made a fool of myself?"

"My personal life doesn't concern you," Kagami said, taking a drink from his glass. "I didn't hurt her, in case you were wondering. It was just puppy love that ran its course. We only kissed a few times."

"Don't talk like you know all about it," Aomine groused. He was still in a bad mood, especially now that the Hufflepuff first years giggled when they saw him in the hall. All he wanted to do now was find his bed in the dormitory and sleep for the week. He spotted Kuroko making his way through the crowd of first years and prefects to the Ravenclaw Tower. "Tetsu!" Kuroko turned. "Have you heard? Kagami and Momoi broke up!"

"I heard," Kuroko said. He was beaming. "You caused quite a scene back there."

"You don't have to look so happy about it," Aomine said, though he grinned and hit Kuroko across the head. Kuroko frowned at him and batted his hand away. A group of Slytherin first years hurried past and sneered at him.

"You're infamous now," Kuroko said. Aomine grunted and hurried back to the Gryffindor common room, fuming as the Pink Lady snickered at him when he volunteered the password.

[=]

Akashi's presence in the Ravenclaw Tower was commonplace nowadays and he did not put forth effort to hide his Slytherin affiliation. He did not need a Ravenclaw student to help answer the password question and Kuroko occasionally returned to find him lounging around. Akashi's main motive on visiting the Ravenclaw common room was to play against Midorima in wizard's chess, so the rest of the house did not complain or report him. Kuroko suspected more than half of his house was afraid of Akashi in the first place.

"You really shouldn't be invading other houses' common areas," Kuroko suggested once, sitting on the couch as Midorima and Akashi battled it out on the wizard's chessboard in front of him. "Some of us might not be as forgiving as Midorima and me."

Akashi chuckled. "I don't think anyone will be challenging me soon," he predicted. During the spring quarter of their third year, a sixth year had approached him and hassled him for one thing or another and Akashi had grabbed him in the arm and pinpointed a spot and said _You broke the bone in this spot in Quidditch a few years back, right? How would you feel if I broke it again for you?_ The threat wouldn't have had much back if Murasakibara wasn't standing close by, frowning (though Kuroko and a select few others knew he was only upset because Akashi had been interrupted in feeding him). Since then, Akashi's already infamous name had spread and fewer and fewer people were willing to confront him. "They already know they won't win."

"If you're so confident," Midorima said, studying the board carefully, "then why do you continually insist on challenging me?" Kuroko pointed with his wand at a rook. Midorima ignored him and shifted his knight.

"Because," Akashi practically sang, capturing Midorima's knight with his queen, "you're the one that makes winning much more satisfying."

[=]

"Wow, you're captain this year? That's amazing!"

Himuro smiled proudly. Kagami had called him out one afternoon to help him draft an owl to his parents requesting more funds to purchase his own broom. Most of his earlier ideas were clumsy and fumbling. It appeared Kagami still had not learned how to ask persuasively. He had gotten it into his head that Himuro, as a family friend, would have some insight to his parents' minds. Himuro suggested saying that his Quidditch captain friend recommended it. Kagami wrote it down regardless of how irrelevant it was to his cause. "It's not a big deal," Himuro said humbly. "The upperclassmen thought I was pivotal part of the team and that I could keep everyone's attitudes up."

"That's still really cool," Kagami insisted, biting his quill. They'd played against each other in Quidditch a handful of times. It had been a lot like basketball for him. Himuro had not changed his dedicated attitude to anything he was interested in. Kagami thought he should ask Himuro if he wanted to play basketball soon.

"Are you thinking of being captain of the Gryffindor team?" Himuro asked.

"I don't know." Kagami tapped his wand against the parchment to erase a line. "I'm not sure I'm a leading type. And if it's about skill, I still have to compete against Aomine."

"It's not about talent when it comes to being captain."

"Yeah, I guess." Himuro watched Kagami scrunch his eyebrows together in effort to think up of a good argument. Magical or not, asking the parents for something for such a respectably amount of money was tough.

"Hey," Himuro said, as Kagami struggled. "You've been doing pretty well in Quidditch, like you did in basketball, and I know we didn't really have a 'final' basketball game but how about we go all out next time? I can't really be your big brother mentor if you're just as good as I am, so…"

"No way!"

Himuro was taken aback. "Well, I only thought because we'd grown apart until we met again here…"

"It's because of that!" Kagami flushed and quickly began to roll up the parchment. "You've been like my brother until now; don't think you can stop so fast!" In a huff, he gathered his things and rushed away, clearly embarrassed for saying so much. Himuro watched him go leisurely. He didn't care for underclassmen much, but sometimes they could be cute.

[=]

Aomine'd heard of die-hard Quidditch player fans, but this was ridiculous.

"Look!" Kise shouted in his face, ambushing him in the stairs and waving around a Hufflepuff Quidditch team jersey. Aomine had wanted to just make it to the Great Hall undisturbed and was instead attacked by the monstrosity of yellow and black. "You said I couldn't do it, now look! I'm on the team!"

"Great," Aomine said, shoving the uniform out of his face. "Who are you again?"

"Kise Ryouta!" The boy's whining was really annoying. Kise was following him despite his clear signals. "Last year you said I couldn't even measure up to you because I didn't know anything about Quidditch, but look! I worked hard and now I'm part of the Hufflepuff team! Now you've got to acknowledge me! Look!"

"I don't think I've done anything to wrong you," Aomine insisted, wishing the noise at his ear would go away.

"Yes you did!" Kise practically stomped. "I'm going to beat you on the pitch, and just you watch! I'm a chaser, just like you! And you're going to have to notice me!" He stuck his lower lip out. Aomine rolled his eyes. "How can anyone who plays Quidditch so cool be such a jerk?"

Aomine managed to brush Kise off at the Great Hall doors, where a stream of girls came and ambushed him the same way he'd done to Aomine, and thought he was to be rid of the noisy nuisance. He saw Kise sitting down the hall when he finished lunch and was going to be on his way – and quickly, before the blonde saw him – when he saw Haizaki, one of Slytherin's nasty chasers, strut up to Kise.

"I see Hufflepuff has accepted some Muggle born riffraff on their team!" he announced, grabbing the yellow jersey and yanking it out of Kise's hands. "I can't believe they're so desperate this year, picking anyone who will join. Well, I'm not surprised; Hufflepuffs are so stupid I'm surprised they can even fly straight!"

"Give that back," Kise said levelly.

"You're a newbie, so I'll just say it once," Haizaki mocked, waving the Hufflepuff jersey around in the air. "Mudbloods are especially terrible chasers." With a sneer, he threw the jersey onto the floor and stepped on it.

"Stop!" Kise rose to his feet. The students in the hall had hurriedly rushed away and were watching from a distance. Fights between Quidditch players were always quite the scene. "I may be Muggle born, but it's not my fault people like me and I'm a better wizard than you'll ever be!" He was cut off by Haizaki grabbed a fistful of his hair, sneering as he pulled.

"Looks like the Mudblood Hufflepuff needs to be put back in his place," Haizaki growled, swinging his fist back.

The only fist to connect soundly with a face was Aomine's, and it crashed unceremoniously against Haizaki's jaw. There was a nice cracking sound; Haizaki collapsed onto the floor and after a moment, turned to find his attacker. Aomine was shaking his hand around, his knuckles red. "I'll say this much about Hufflepuffs," he said, looking down contemptuously at Haizaki. "They're especially good finders - in talent, at least. Which is why he came sniffing around me instead of _you_. Now run off like a good little dog. You're not even good enough to breathe the same air as me."

"I'll get you back for this," Haizaki swore, clutching his bruising cheek and spitting blood. "I'll kill you on the Quidditch pitch." He hobbled away, shouting at underclassmen who ventured toward him.

"You didn't have to do that," Kise said as Aomine bent over to pick up the dusty Hufflepuff jersey, shaking it to dust it off. "I could have taken care of him myself."

"Guys like him piss me off the most," Aomine said, speaking over Kise. "Guys like him are the ones who are making guys like me from wizarding families look bad." He shoved the jersey against Kise's chest. "You're annoying, but you're alright." He grinned for effect. It wasn't really to look cool – he'd never punched anyone before and Kagami would definitely approve of his cause. Kise flushed and took the jersey grudgingly.

"You're still a jerk," he mumbled.

"We'll see," Aomine laughed.

[=]

"So you still keep in touch with that bastard," Hyuuga sulked.

"Of course!" Riko clutched the letter to her chest as if Hyuuga had made a move for it. "Teppei was one of my closest friends here! I'm not going to cut off ties with him just because he's graduated!" Patting the hardy barn owl, the one Kiyoshi had befriended on the grounds when it was only an owlet, Riko sent it back on its way. "Unlike _some people_, he's willing to listen to me when I talk."

"Sure, sure," Hyuuga muttered, turning back to the handout they had been given. On it was several times to meet with heads of houses and appropriate professors about future professions after the academic year. Kiyoshi had complained about it enough but he'd managed to get all his affairs in order and graduated fairly painlessly. Riko had already gotten several requests from the Ministry of Magic to work for them; her grades and uncanny ability to read others with only a look had garnered quite a resume for her. Hyuuga, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out what to do with himself.

He had gotten on a train of thought when Riko derailed it by giggling. "Oh, it's nothing," she chuckled when Hyuuga looked at up her with a scowl. "He's gotten into some scuffles with the dragons he's been caring with. We didn't call him 'Iron Heart' for nothing…" She read the letter with irritating enthusiasm. Hyuuga scowled some more. "You know, I've always been amazed that Teppei's so good with dragons…but I guess I shouldn't be, since he was always pretty steadfast when playing Quidditch against some amazing people…"

"If you liked him so much, you should have talked _him_ into being Gryffindor team captain," Hyuuga grumbled.

"I don't let my emotions get in the way of my judgments," Riko said wisely. "Just because I like someone doesn't mean I think they should always be in favorable positions. I think you're best suited for a job like the captain so that's why I think you're right where you are."

"So you admit you did like him."

Riko looked up at him over the letter. "What are you on about now? Of course I did. I like you too. This and that are different."

"Sure they are," Hyuuga said, turning back to the handout as if it interested him immensely. "Speaking of which, we should be thinking of whom to hand the leadership role to after we graduate. I'm not sure who I should pick. The team this year looks like a bunch of airheads."

"I think Mitobe's a good guy," Riko said offhandedly, turning back to her letter. "He seems like he could be a good pillar for the team. Most Keepers are decent guys." It wasn't until Hyuuga bullied Mitobe later, practically threatening him to hand over the position of Keeper that Riko had to rephrase her intentions ("I like _you_, you stupid asshole, now stop bothering him!") and offered Hyuuga the option of dating her, which he immediately accepted, before taking it back, and accepting again after she'd stormed off.

[=]

Kuroko looked at the bubbling cauldron next to Kise's bed that Kise had charmed into being invisible until he offered the counter-charm. The potion was a sickening pink. He looked at Kise, then back at the potion. "You wanted me to what?"

"Check it!" Kise insisted. "I know love potions are really hard to brew and they're not allowed in the castle, but I really _need_ this! You're good at studies, so I thought you could help me check it…make sure it's good and all that…that I didn't make a poison or anything." He flailed his arms uselessly. Kuroko stared at him. "Come on, Kuroko_cchi_!"

"Who is this for?"

Kise blushed and looked sheepish. "I can't say, Kuroko_cchi_…but you'll help me out, won't you?"

"You should have asked Kagami," Kuroko said, sniffing at the sweet-smelling concoction. "He's better at Potions than I am."

"He would have told!" Kise pouted. "You know him! A stickler to the rules but he breaks them all the time. And anyway, he might have told…" He slapped his hands over his mouth. "I can't say, I can't say…"

"Why do you think you need a love potion?" Kuroko asked, performing the typical spells to check for poison. They came out clear. Kise might have been a complete useless thing to school, but once he got his mind on something he was dedicated. "Aren't you always saying you can charm anyone?"

"Yeah, but," Kise protested, flopping onto his bed frustratedly. "It's hard to tell what…that person is thinking! Sometimes I think maybe that person likes me, but it's hard!" Kuroko stared at him over the pink fumes of the love potion. "He makes fun of me but sometimes I think maybe he might…I mean…well…is it okay or not?" Flushed, he sat up and changed the subject. "Did I do it right?"

"It's not poison," Kuroko offered. "How did you know how to make one?"

"I got the girls to get me a pictured recipe," Kise said proudly. "If I can see someone do it, I can copy it. It was just a matter of getting the ingredients and following how the witch did it. So can I use it, do you think?"

"You know it's not really going to make Aomine fall in love with you, right?"

"It's not for Aomine_cchi_!" Kise cried. "What made you think it was!"

Kuroko bit back a comment about how Kise tended to follow Aomine around whining about Quidditch or something along those lines, and that despite Aomine's friendly teasing, kept coming around and chattering all the time. He supposed that could all be interpreted as intensive admiration. He shrugged. "Love potions strengthen with time," he said, hoping Kise's prolonged delay in giving the love potion would give him adequate time to ask Kagami to make an antidote. It wasn't that he didn't support Kise, but it wasn't like he was going to allow this underhand move to happen without his reaction. Still, the thought that Kise was willing to go that far was quite amusing. Kuroko couldn't help but chuckle the next time Kise came clamoring up to them when he was with Aomine. Aomine's mystified reaction and Kise's terrified squeals forced him to stumble away, holding in laughter.

[=]

Aomine had swallowed his pride. He'd done all his research and studied up on all the terminology. This was a huge test. The biggest test of his entire life, in fact. If he failed it, he would be subject to the worst ridicule. It wasn't an admission to anything, or even acknowledgment of any equivalency. But – wasn't he the one to say that one shouldn't knock something if one hasn't tried it?

"Kagami," Aomine said during their winter break, after finding his housemate and Kuroko sitting heads together in the Great Hall watching Midorima and Akashi play Wizard's Chess match 129423 (so it seemed; whenever he saw bookworm and creepy eyes play Wizard's Chess it was _all the freaking time_). Words were hard, especially now he had an audience in Midorima's frustrated eyes and Akashi's amused ones. "I was wondering," he said, sounding as bored and mechanical as possible, "if you wanted to play basketball with me?"

"I thought you'd never ask!" Kagami shouted, leaping up and accidentally overturning the board in the process.

"Don't get so excited," Aomine said quickly, as Midorima grumbled audibly and collected the squeaking and pained pieces off the ground. "It's not that I'm saying it's _equal_ to Quidditch in any way, but I thought maybe I'd just see what kind of…peasant Muggle sport you find so great…that isn't Quidditch…that's all."

"That's such a roundabout thing to say," Akashi said, making a leering face. Of course he insisted on playing as well. His excellent charms work allowed an empty classroom to be turned into a makeshift basketball court. Kuroko acted as referee. Midorima agreed reluctantly to play to even out the teams. And even though it _definitely_ wasn't as fun as Quidditch and they played themselves into a stalemate against Midorima and Akashi, Aomine _might_ have suggested they play again some other time.

"Typical," Kuroko said in his irritatingly knowing fashion.

[=]

"I need to talk to you," Kise hissed, grabbing his collar in the middle of the hallway and guiding him by the neck to an empty classroom. Aomine would have mentioned something about choking, if he could speak. There was suddenly a need to throttle Kise soundly. He was just getting ready to knock some sense into the boy when Kise jabbed his wand and the door closed behind them ominously with a dull thud. He was also looking pretty impressively upset. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Aomine asked, rubbing at his neck.

"That!" Kise cried, sounding completely scandalized. "In the match earlier! You…you…" He flushed righteously. "You pinched my butt."

"I totally never did that."

"Yes you did! You made me drop the Quaffle!"

"It worked, then," Aomine shrugged, scratching his nose. Kise sputtered at him. "You must be talking about the time I flew by you and then you clumsily let go of the Quaffle because you were so amazed at my presence. You don't need to smear my name."

"You touched me inappropriately!" Kise shouted. "Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I first thought you were really cool! You're not cool at all. You're just cocky when you're playing Quidditch and it's all just arrogance on your part! Well, I'm going to stop admiring you right this instance because

"So do you think Kise likes Aomine or something?" Kagami asked, after mulling over the possibility the entire time after the Quidditch match. Kuroko, keeping step with him with his bag heavy with Arithmancy books slung over his shoulder, scoffed. "I'm serious! I mean…he's always yowling and stuff and is really noisy but he keeps finding us and whining away…he keeps calling himself Aomine's rival, but really, I'm more of a rival than he is…"

"The question of Kise liking Aomine was never argued," Kuroko said, his footsteps unheard next to Kagami's noisy walk. "You remember the love potion antidote I asked you about?"

It took Kagami a moment to digest this new information. "Oh," he said.

"The real question is whether or not Aomine likes Kise."

It was Kagami's turn to scoff. "I don't know about anything like that, but Aomine doesn't dislike Kise, that's for sure. Somehow he doesn't find Kise annoying. I think it's his attention whoring attitude of his. He provokes Kise most of the time, you know. I don't think it would be too hard to just ignore him and walk along."

"Like schoolyard flirtation."

"I don't know. Maybe." Kagami wrinkled his nose. "Why are we talking about this?"

"Why," Kuroko echoed. "You said you wanted Transfiguration practice? Switching spells?"

"Yeah." They ducked into a nearby hallway and pushed open the door to the closest unused classroom, walking promptly into a deserted room where Kise and Aomine were making out. Kise made a strangled, high-pitched sound and broke away horrified, although his hands were still clutching Aomine's robes; Aomine turned and glared at them.

"This place is in use," he snarled, and charmed the door to close in their faces.

"That answered a few things," Kuroko said conversationally, gently leading a transfixed Kagami away from the door.

("They are?" Momoi squealed happily when Kuroko told her, leading Kagami to wonder if he was really the last one to notice anything.)

[=]

"So I decided to appoint Mitobe as Gryffindor Quidditch captain," Hyuuga said after their last match, ensuring the Quidditch Cup in their possession for the third straight year.

There was a long silence before both Kagami and Aomine yelled, _what_!

"Mitobe?" Aomine shouted, shamelessly rude toward the fifth year, who looked flustered but was still silent. "He doesn't talk! How can he lead the team?"

"I can interpret!" Koganei, the other, fifth year beater chimed up. "Right now, he's saying he's flattered but he doesn't have to take the spot!"

"No," Hyuuga said, with heavy finality. "I thought about it for a long time. I think Mitobe's the best for captain out of this team." He glared at Kagami and Aomine. "Better than these green, underclassmen idiots, that's for sure."

"Captain," Aomine whined.

"Haven't I taught you how to speak to upperclassmen?" Hyuuga asked, smiling, although the air around him crackled menacingly. "It was decided upon, so shut up and accept it, okay? Aren't you even going to be upset that your beloved upperclassmen are graduating this year?"

"Captain," Kagami said, although he said it much more sympathetically and sadly than Aomine. "What are you going to be doing now you're done with school?"

"I thought you'd never ask," Hyuuga bragged, throwing his head around proudly, all memory of recent wrongdoings disappeared. "I shall be dealing with Muggle relations! I will be the bridge between the magical world and the Muggle world, explaining about the workings of the magical world…"

"He means he can whip out his stupid dioramas to physically show our history," Riko spoke up, coming up to the huddle from the stands. "He's got some made up and showed it to the Ministry of Magic when he went in for an interview. His replica of the Second Wizarding War is especially impressive."

"Muggles will be so impressed when they notice my efforts on my Harry figure," Hyuuga said smugly.

"Are you going to make a diorama about your wedding?" Aomine asked crudely. The team was familiar with Hyuuga's dioramas; he'd made four and charmed the figures to imitate the playing styles of their, and the other three Quidditch team's, players to figure out strategies and plays. Kagami had been fascinated enough, but Aomine thought they were quite a bore.

"Hasn't Junpei taught you how to talk to upperclassmen?" Riko asked with a grin, before punching Aomine in the neck.

[=]

Note: Ok come at me losers, but this is the last chapter I have finished and am happy with so sorry but I might be absent for a while as school starts up again! Gomen KagaMomoi fans, as much as I love them as a pair they're only…puppy love…romance…help…


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